The DISH

Unbossed and unbought news and information you can use

Vol. 8 Issue 25…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…June 24, 2005

Intuit’s Vibe

Ghost Warriors
By Donald Hook

Shadows dance on canyon walls,

They are shadows from my fire.

And from these walls Ghost Warriors call

"Your history is a liar."

"Our sacred lands were stolen and this we can't forget."

"The spirits of our warriors who gave their lives for it."

But the wind whispers to me that the shadows

I see are visions of when the west was young.

And the Indian danced around his council fire

where prayers to the Great Spirit were sung.

They asked the Great Spirit

to guide them in this their troubled time.

For the white man walked upon their land

and said "This land is mine."

It was the search for yellow iron

that became the red man's curse.

For the white man swarmed upon their land

each fighting to be first.

And no amount of prayers

could stop the coming flood.

Soon the yellow iron was bathed in Indian blood.

The Great Spirit couldn't help them

they had to fight alone.

For the mountains and the desert

that had always been their home.

The Indian was defeated and just seemed to fade away.

And his sacred lands were ravished

it seemed in but a day.

The mountains were blasted open;

the gold ripped from beneath the earth.

The wounded land lies silent now

and has but little worth.

The Indian is gone forever

from this land that once was his.

And no one seems to want it now not the way it is.

So now that you know their story,

will you listen to the whispering wind?

The ghosts of ancient warriors

are singing their songs again.

They're singing to the Great Spirit

their sad and mournful prayers.

Asking Him to make whole again

this land that once was theirs.

News You Use

Indian Affairs Hearing

The next installment of Senate Indian Affairs Committee's probe of GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff is scheduled for June 28, 2005. Chaired by Senator John McCain (R-AZ), the oversight hearing on Indian gaming is expected to hear testimony from a tribe of Mississippi Choctaw Indians, a former Abramoff client.

According to press reports, the Choctaws and five other Native American tribes donated millions of dollars to various political causes and charities designated by Abramoff as "the cost of doing business in Washington, D.C." Some of the organizations that received Indian tribal donations through Abramoff included Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), an anti-tax group formed by Grover Norquist, Century Strategies, which is headed by former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed, and Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy (CREA), a group founded by Norquist and Gale Norton, current Secretary of the Interior Department, which holds final administrative authority over Indian gaming.

For witness lists, documents presented at previous hearings and more, log on to www.indian.senate.gov/.

Bit of History

The Tigua of Texas

Pueblo, "town" in Spanish, is the name given to Native American tribes that lived in the southwest USA, mainly Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah, for their distinct permanent villages called pueblos. Pueblo Indians, including the Hopi, Zuñi, Taos and Tigua, are the oldest and most developed pre-Columbian civilization north of Mexico. Descended from basket makers and cliff dwellers, they are noted for their handiworks, social system and religious practices.

Started around 800 AD, the Tigua ancestral home-- Pueblo Gran Quivera--is located near El Paso in the Manzano Mountains. By 1300, it was one of the largest pueblos. Spanish explorer Coronado was the first European to see Gran Quivera (1539). More Spaniards followed, founding settlements around Gran Quivera. Under Juan de Oñate (1601), Spaniards subjugated the Tiguas and established the Spanish colony in Santa Fe.

In addition to slavery, Spaniards brought diseases that killed many Indians. A severe drought in the 1670s drove the Tigua from Gran Quivera south to the Rio Grande River near modern-day El Paso, Texas. Others went north to live with relatives at Isleta Pueblo. Today, Gran Quivera is part of the National Park Service.

In 1680, Pueblo Indians revolted against the Spanish, driving them out of New Mexico to El Paso. Following several unsuccessful counterattacks, the Spanish recaptured Isleta Pueblo in 1682. Former Spanish prisoners turned Christians, Tigua and Isleta near El Paso founded Ysleta and built Corpus Christi de la Isleta, the oldest church and mission in Texas (1682).

In 1751, the king of Spain granted the Tigua title to the thirty-six square miles around their pueblo. Situated next to El Paso, the Tigua village became a suburb of the expanding city. The US took over in 1848, but Texas did not recognize the land grant until passage of the Ysleta Relief Act (1854). Tiguas lost most of their land to unscrupulous speculators and acts by the Texas legislature. Much of El Paso is built on Tigua land.

In the 1960s, Texas recognized the Tiguas as a tribe and President Lyndon Johnson signed legislation making their land a reservation. In 1969, the tribe filed a lawsuit claiming the Ysleta land grant and land traditionally used for hunting, food gathering, and religious purposes. (Sources: www.texasindians.com, and www.tsha.utexas.edu/)

Hood Notes

Abramoff’s Tigua Ripoff

In 1993, most Tigua lived in poverty. The tribe's school dropout and unemployment rates exceeded 50%. With economy in shames, the tribe opened the Speaking Rock Casino & Entertainment Center.

By 2000, profits from gaming topped $50 million. The Tigua built homes, set up a health care system and built a modern education center. Unemployment fell as tribal members found jobs in their gaming industry.

Despite this success, the tribe could not overcome the objection of Southern conservative Baptists in Texas and ambitious politicians, including a governor with presidential aspirations and an attorney general with his eye on a seat in the US Senate. Republican attorney general John Cornyn, who is currently a US Senator, filed a lawsuit against the Tigua casino contending the tribe needed the state's consent for gaming.

Hired by Jack Abramoff to oppose the casino on moral grounds, former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed used his influence with Texas ministers to stir up public opposition and lobby the Texas legislature. The court ordered the Speaking Rock closed, a decision that became final following several appeals in 2002.

Tigua tribal members and their neighbors lost an estimated 600 jobs. The casino's closure proved to be a windfall for Republican politicians that used it as a campaign issue and an area Republican campaign contributor with gaming interests in nearby New Mexico.

Within days of the casino's closing, Abramoff contacted the Tigua, offering his service in getting Congress to reopen it. Abramoff and his partner Michael Scanlon received $4.2 million from the Tigua.

As a result of Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearings, widely publicized e-mails show links between Abramoff, Reed, who received $4 million for his work in getting the casino closed, and Cornyn. In one email to Reed, Abramoff wrote, "I wish those moronic Tiguas were smarter in their political contributions. I'd love us to get our mitts on that moolah!! Oh well, stupid folks get wiped out." Reed responded, "Got it."

Abramoff and Scanlon swindled the Tigua. They secretly worked with Reed to close the casino, and then collected millions from them in a failed attempt to reopen the gaming facility. Abramoff and Scanlon refused to answer questions from the Indian Affairs Committee, citing their constitutional right against self-incrimination.

Phantom Scribbler

Christian Coalition Crook (CCC))

Rumor has it, Georgia's fair-haired boy -- Ralph Reed -- is not exactly a saint. The former head of the Christian Coalition, former chairman of the Georgia state Republican Party, Bush-Cheney 2004 Southeast Regional Campaign Chairman and current candidate for the 2006 GOP nomination for lieutenant governor is said to enjoy the rush of politics and other substances. With a baby face, glassy eyes and a knack for quick comebacks, Reed ranks high among public figures, such as Rush Limbaugh and the current Georgia Lt. Governor Mark Taylor, that prefer something stronger than an after dinner drink. More like Taylor than Limbaugh, who allegedly doctor shopped for the legal prescription drug, Oxycontin, Reed's libation of choice is decidedly illegal.

While only rumored to use illegal substances, Reed is known to associate with questionable characters, including Jack Abramoff, lobbyist and major fund-raiser for George W. Bush, and Grover Norquist, both fellow College Republicans. Reed has professed ignorance about the fact that Abramoff represented the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, which runs a casino between New Orleans and Houston. Concerned about competition from a proposed casino outside Houston, the Coushatta hired Abramoff and partner Michael Scanlon, a former press aide to House Majority Leader Tom Delay, to frustrate any area gaming competition. This included the Tigua casino, Reed's first anti-gaming assignment.

When questioned by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee on his role in the Tigua affair, Reed denied knowing Abramoff contacted the Tiguas within days of the casino's closing. Abramoff allegedly indicated to the Tiguas that he had the backing of Senators that would push through Congress legislation to re-open their casino. For their failed congressional effort, the Tigua paid Abramoff and Scanlon $4.2 million.

Abramoff paid Reed $4 million for his help in closing the Tigua casino. He also treated his friend and colleague to a $100,000 golfing vacation to St. Andrews in Scotland. Abramoff and Scanlon allegedly collected $82 million from six Indian tribes, clients he frequently disparaged in email to his friend and cohort Reed.

While the Senate Committee and, by inference, the public are supposed to believe St. Reed, these email paint a different picture. They show the Christian Coalition crook helped Abramoff swindled the Indians.

Politics Y2K5

Abramoff’s Web

With the more than $80 million bilked out of his Indian gaming clients, Jack Abramoff, a close associated of George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove, had plenty of cash to spread around. A "pioneer" that delivered at least $100,000 in contributions to Bush's 2000 presidential campaign, Abramoff gave substantial sums to other Republican candidates, causes and organizations. Abramoff cash went into the coffers of Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy (CREA), an organization formed by Interior Secretary Gale Norton and Norquist, and the National Center for Public Policy, a conservative Washington think tank with longstanding ties to House Majority Leader Tom Delay.

According to Senate Indian Affairs Committee documents, the National Center for Public Policy received $2.5 million for a pro-gaming public relations campaign. At the time, Abramoff held a seat on the center's board of directors. Records show the money came from Abramoff's clients, but there is no work to account for the center's disbursements to causes and companies specified by Abramoff. One company, KayGold LLC, is apparently owned by Abramoff. It turns out that Abramoff was taking money out of one pocket and putting it into another or those of close associates, like Rep. Tom DeLay.

DeLay figures prominently in the probe of Abramoff's activities. This includes the K-Street Project, brainchild of DeLay and Norquist. The K-Street Project, a coordinated effort to force lobbyists to contribute only to Republican campaigns and hire only Republicans or suffer the consequences, moved money from corporate lobbyists and their clients to Republican candidates. Abramoff funneled plenty through the K-Street Project.

DeLay took foreign trips arranged by Abramoff, including, like Ralph Reed, an expensive golfing excursion to St. Andrews. In 1997, DeLay took an Abramoff-funded trip to the Mariana Islands. At the time, the islands' government was an Abramoff client. The Mariana Islands eventually benefitted from favorable anti-labor and immigration legislation.

While Delay and the GOP have sufficiently cowed Democrats by unilaterally changing ethic committee rules to prevent further House investigations into DeLay's lapses, the Sugarland, Texas Republican may not be able to avoid the wide web cast by Abramoff's transgressions.

Disgruntled wants to know: Of late, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN), scion of a wealthy Nashville family, surgeon and likely candidate for the 2008 Republican nomination, has been prominently featured in the news. Two of his most covered moments occurred when the Senate interfered in the Terri Schiavo feeding tube matter in which Dr. Frist rendered his expert diagnosis of the severely brain-damaged woman based on an old videotape and the threatened nuclear option to end Senate filibuster of judicial nominations. Not so much publicized is his decision to borrow more than a million dollars from his campaign to repay a loan he made to his 1994 Senate campaign and employ some Enron-type accounting to disguise the resulting debt for his 2000 campaign committee. The Federal Election Commission is examining the legality of Frist's crafty reporting. More entertaining, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution (Frist's finances questioned, 06/12/05), Frist put campaign contributions into a mutual fund managed by the Charles Schwab investment firm, one of the companies that support privatizing Social Security. The index fund lost hundreds of thousands of dollars, making Dr. Frist the poster-boy for opponents of person accounts. After all, if this smart guy is a loser, what will happen to the average stock market investor?

Disgruntled says: Since effectively taking control of the US government, the US public and, to a large extent, the world have had to suffer the warped machinations of conservative right-wing nuts controlling the Republican Party. While no political party has a monopoly over ethics or religion, Republicans seem to think they have cornered the faith-based market. To the contrary, the only market they have cornered is peopled with propagandists, paid pulpits and others easily purchased. As a result, ethics and honesty are on hiatus. When they do return from this Republican paid vacation, Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert's hand-picked ethics committee chairman, Doc Hastings, Majority Leader Tom DeLay and others on both sides of the isle can be brought to the bar of justice for their unethical and criminal conduct. With Hastings tied to Indian ripoff artist, Jack Abramoff, it is past time to appoint an independent prosecutor to look into the impact of his multi-faceted criminality on the US House of Representatives.

Disgruntled feels: Swindled! Like Zionism and the contemporary plight of Palestinians, US manifest destiny doomed Native Americans to wholesale fraud, land swindles and near annihilation. After centuries of abuse, Native Americans, relegated to reservations, continue to be cheated out of millions of dollars by individuals and the government. According to a 1996 class action lawsuit (Cobell v. Norton) filed on behalf of Native Americans, the US Interior Department mismanaged oil, gas, grazing, timber and other royalties from Native American lands dating back to 1887. Determined not to make restitution, Interior Secretary Gale Norton, who has ties to an organization that is implicated in a contemporary Indian gaming swindle, has been ruled in contempt of court by the federal judge hearing this case for failure to produce records to account for the amount owned Native Americans. The debt is so old that many of those owed will die before the matter is resolved. A classic swindle, the crooks will go free and pass on their ill-gotten gains, while the victims perish in poverty.

Mailbox: E-Mails, Faxes and Telephone Calls

Email newsmime@yahoo.com The Shinnecock Indian tribe is seeking billions of dollars for 150 years of back rent on land it inhabited for 12,000 years in New York state in one of the largest suits of its kind. The area in question is part of the Hamptons, which is a summer playground for the rich and famous.

Email www.texasobserver.org Pimping of the President...For months after he took the oath of office in 2001, George W. Bush was the attraction, and the White House the venue, for a fundraiser organized by the alleged perpetrator of the largest billing fraud in the history of corporate lobbying. Abramoff's White House guests were the chiefs of two of the six casino-rich Indian tribes he and his partner Mike Scanlon ultimately billed $82 million for services tribal leaders now claim were never performed or were improperly performed.

Email www.salon.com Broken Hammer? Recent revelations of huge sums paid to family members have stung the GOP majority leader...By Lou DuBose... Delay laid the groundwork for the K Street Project by calling corporate lobbyists into his office after he was elected whip in 1995. He sat them down and pointed to their names in a ledger that included contributions they had made to Democrats and Republicans. Then he reminded them that Republicans were in charge and their political giving had better reflect that - or else. The "or else" was a threat to cut of access to the Republican leadership.

|| 2005 Issues || The DISH ||